Postal Worker Bids Farewell to a Friend, 61

Postal worker Mike Boehm witnessed an end to an era this week as the 61-year-old post office on Broadway where he worked for nearly 25 years was torn down.

“I put a lot of time in that place,” said Boehm, 48, a post office box and window clerk. “That building has been a landmark in Anaheim for so many years, it’s hard to see something like that go.”

The post office, one of the oldest buildings remaining in the area, was razed to clear the way for continued redevelopment.

Last year, the city’s Redevelopment Agency agreed to buy the 33,000-square-foot property at 311 W. Broadway as part of a deal with the federal government.

Robert M. Zur Schmiede, redevelopment manager, said the site will be incorporated into a project combining commercial offices and space for community events.

In exchange for the site next to the Anaheim Museum, the Redevelopment Agency footed the bill to build a modernized $1.1-million post office at Broadway and Clementine Street.

The new, 5,500-square-foot post office opened in May and is designed to get customers in and out as quickly as possible.

The architectural firm that designed the new building, Paul Zajfen Architect/IBI Group of Laguna Beach, has been honored for the post office’s “light and airy” look.

“It’s a beautiful building we’re in now,” said Boehm, a 40-year resident of Anaheim. “It’s like no other post office anyone has seen. It’s the centerpiece of downtown.”

The extensive use of glass has caused some postal customers to dub it “the little Crystal Cathedral” while others call it the “fish bowl” and “the aquarium.”

The old postal building was a Depression-era Works Progress Administration project, built in 1935 for $90,000 and opened on May 28, 1936.